I'd been thinking about doing this for sometime now to have an easy way to charge or maintain the charge of this AGM battery. Not to mention, having an easier way to keep the battery up while doing updates like Sync 3, Forscan and messing with the audio for fine tuning and such as well as maintaining a good charge for the Dash Cam to operate when parked.

So, I bought a battery tender and enough accessories to make this happen. I chose to use the 'eyelet' connection from the battery and add a 4ft. extension so that it could be run out through the grille making it not necessary to crack the hood everytime I want to hook up the tender.

As you can see in the above pic, I ran this extension as explained in the pic. The plastic fastener holding down the end of the radiator air deflector was removed to make it easier to maneuver the extension cord to the 'rabbit hole' I used to snake it to the front of the grille, avoiding any contact with the shudders.

To keep the Battery extension cord from flopping around, I have it held in place with velcro...as it says in the pic...above...

However, this is only half of this project. I'm going to mount the actual Battery Tender somewhere inside my tool shed of which I park my truck in front of. When this happens, the tender will be plugged in all the time. The lead from the Battery Tender will have an access hole for it to go through to the outside of the shed with enough of the lead to reach the cord on the truck. When not in use, the lead will be wound up around a cleat I'll mount to the outside of the shed.

So, there you go. A new convenience to make life easier when messing around with the truck.

 

I also keep my truck battery on a battery tender. I still need to route the cable to the outside of the truck. I will check out your routing solution.

 

I hope you connected the negative line to a chassis ground and not the negative post of the battery, that way the BMS will be able to properly monitor the charging of the battery and will have the correct SOC (State of Charge). I use my tender with a cord, but I keep the cord tucked under the hood. Far too much road dirt gets on the front of vehicles around here.

 

You may be a candidate for a more permanent solution.
i use these on my snowmobiles, there are other varieties as well, search SAE weatherproof outlet

 

I have been wanting to do this since I bought my truck! What tender do you use?
looks like you went direct to the battery for both positive and negative? You didn’t mess with the BMS at all?

i have a CTEK and it comes with a “quick connect” that you can attach to make it easy just like you did.... I just never knew how to hook it up on my truck, didn’t know if it had to go through the BMS or if you had to reset it or what.
the info I’ve read over the years has never really been clear on the proper way to hook up a tender like this...
seeing this, I am motivated again to get mine hooked up. I have it for my car and it’s great! Now I need it for my truck.

 

I connected my ground as in the picture below. But now I am not sure if that is any different than the neg battery post, as the black/purple wire goes to the neg on the battery. Is that an ok location? Where did you connect your neg wire?

 

can you post pics or PM me the details on how you have yours connected? Thanks!

 

I did similar with my 2016 SCrew. I ran a 20-foot 2-wire SAE extension cable to the back of the truck along the frame. Since I normally back the truck into my driveway, I can use it to hook into the trickle charger in my garage. Also if I'm out and about, I can connect it to a 2.4-watt (or 8-watt) solar panel that I can place on the truck tonneau cover while I'm at work, if I feel the urge to maintain the battery

 

The main connections run off the battery terminals (cable side) of which the negative cable is grounded to the chassis...as with most vehicle grounds.

In the pic, the battery tender cable is clamped to the negative cable as is the BMS. No issues doing it this way and the SOC shows up correct. I have it monitored constantly. If you are not aware, the BMS is the black object integrated with the negative terminal. If you do it this way, simply unscrew the nut without pulling any wires and place the negative tender cable eyelet on the stud and replace the nut.

The Battery Tender model is the 5A Power Tender.

 

Good info. Just to clarify, the best way on all vehicles is to place red on battery, black wire NOT on battery ground... but INSTEAD on vehicle metal/ground? Could someone please expand on this. I'm just trying to learn. I used a battery tender but always hook the terminals directly to the red and black battery posts.